Thursday, April 19, 2012

Why Holocaust Remembrance Is NOT Enough

What we must understand is that any commemoration of the Holocaust that does not speak of the need to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons or of preserving Israel’s security against the threat of Palestinian terrorism is not worthy of the name. Far from there being too much talk about Iran when discussing the Holocaust, there is not enough. Though today’s situation is not akin to that of 1939 when there was no Jewish state ready to defend itself or an America that despite the ambivalence of its president is united in support of Israel, the peril is nonetheless real.

The mere recital of expressions of sorrow for the Six Million is not enough. Acts of remembrance that do not cause us to draw conclusions about the present are of little use. For all the effort and resources that have gone into the proliferation of Holocaust memorials around the United States, it must be understood that the best and only true memorial to the Shoah is to be found in the creation and the survival of the State of Israel and of the Jewish people itself. Those who weep today about the fate of the Six Million but say nothing about the possibility that the West will not act to stop Iran or seek to discourage Israel from defending its people have learned nothing.

1 comment:

All true, but pretending the year is 1930-something and you are heroically and single-handedly opposing the Nazis and preventing the Holocaust from happening gives you a nice little frisson down the back of your neck . . . and is certainly easier--not to mention a lot safer--than standing up for living Jews and/or the State of Israel in the here and now.

(My own predilect fantasy is that it's 1898 and I'm riding next to Winston Churchill during the great cavalry charge at the Battle of Omrudman . . . but that's just me.)